County Caseworker 2 - Part-Time

Luzerne County • Wilkes-Barre, PA

6d • Onsite

About The Position

Employees in this class provide social and case management services to children, youth, families, and others to help them achieve improved social, economic, emotional, or physical adjustment. The work involves gathering essential information, counseling clients and family members, helping them access available resources, applying problem-solving techniques, supporting service-plan goals, monitoring client behavior, and coordinating with agencies in the service network. Employees follow established regulations, policies, and procedures while exercising initiative and judgment. They may supervise paraprofessional or clerical staff. Work is reviewed by a professional social service or administrative supervisor through individual and group conferences and review of records and reports.

Assignments may be in units serving adolescents and their families; foster youth preparing for independent living; children and families involved in concurrent permanency planning; child protective services intake; general protective services; intake screening; or resource-family services. Duties across these units may include assessing child safety and family needs, providing or coordinating casework and treatment services, developing and monitoring family service plans, supporting family visitation, preparing for court, referring families to community resources, screening and distributing referrals, documenting case and referral information, and recruiting, evaluating, training, approving, and supporting resource families and identifying appropriate placements for children.

This is a permanent part-time position of approximately 19 hours per week. Vacancies are in Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

Requirements

• Meet at least one minimum experience and training pathway: six months of experience as a County Caseworker 1; successful completion of the County Social Casework Intern program; a bachelor's degree with a social welfare major; a bachelor's degree including or supplemented by 12 college credits in sociology, social welfare, psychology, gerontology, criminal justice, or other related social sciences plus one year of professional social casework experience in a public or private social services agency; or an equivalent combination of experience and training including 12 relevant college credits.
• Knowledge of current social case management principles, techniques, and methods.
• Knowledge of social, economic, and health problems and resources and their effects on human growth and development.
• Knowledge of individual and group development and behavior and effective ways to work with adults and children experiencing social, economic, emotional, or health problems.
• Knowledge of the basic principles and methods of program interpretation and community organization.
• Knowledge of social welfare policy and law as they relate to agency functions, purposes, and societal structures.
• Ability to work effectively with people and help them use their potential constructively in addressing problems.
• Ability to understand and accept the needs and rights of others and work with adults and children who are physically challenged, emotionally troubled, or economically disadvantaged.
• Ability to conduct individual and family interviews and use them to identify problems.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with clients, families, staff, outside agencies and institutions, and the public.
• Ability to plan and organize work, prepare records and reports, set priorities, and maintain a caseload effectively and promptly.
• Ability to plan, organize, and direct the work of others.
• Ability to interpret and apply relevant laws, regulations, and policies governing agency services.
• Ability to express ideas adequately orally and in writing.

Responsibilities

• Provide social and case management services to children, youth, families, and others.
• Obtain essential information, counsel clients and family members, and help them use available resources.
• Apply problem-solving techniques, support service-plan goals, monitor client behavior, and coordinate with agencies in the service network.
• Assess reports of child abuse or neglect and evaluate child safety and family needs in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and agency procedures.
• Determine appropriate agency or community response to referrals, conduct preliminary screening assessments, document referral information, and distribute referrals to appropriate units.
• Develop, monitor, and update Family Service Plans with families; support permanency planning and consider concurrent plans where appropriate.
• Provide family visitation support, court preparation, community-service linkage, family support, and required documentation.
• Coordinate treatment and protective services, use community resources, and work toward keeping families together or reuniting them when appropriate.
• Recruit, evaluate, train, approve, and support resource families and identify suitable placement settings for children.
• Prepare adequate records and reports and maintain an effective and timely caseload.
• May plan, organize, and direct the work of paraprofessional or clerical staff.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Entry Level